I'm only seventeen but I must admit I can see a change in the imaginations of those younger than me. Just yesterday I attended an audition at a theatre school, we were split into groups according to our ages and asked to each come up with a plot line for a sketch on the topic of dreams. I was shocked to hear what the youngest group of seven to nine year olds put together. It began innocently enough with a man and woman falling in love, getting married and having a baby, but then (and for no apparent reason), the man killed both his wife, child and then himself. Initially I was appalled but now I am quite saddened by it, are these the fairytales of the future?

Naomi, Ballymena, Northern Ireland

My son came home this week complaining that his Year 11 class has to study 'gansta rap' as part of their Eng Lit GCSE. His comment? 'Great, just 'cause we live in South London'. He feels this course module has nothing to offer educationally in terms of literature and has been included just so that teachers get a chance to raise issues and encourage critical thinking regarding violence. This would perhaps be a worthy aim but better placed in Personal and Social Education, or whatever it is called now. Both my son and I agree that this topic would have more value if it were to study rap as a whole, rather than the posturing of ganstas. He is also relieved (for once!) that there are no girls at his school as all the ones he knows would feel uncomfortable because of the disrespectful way they are represented in these lyrics.

JP, London,

If you dangle an option such as the Assassin in front of an imaginative child what do you expect? a discourse along the lines of 'the Assassin lost his job because he couldn't stand the sight of blood and after struggling with his inner demons saw the error of his ways and became a social worker' ( top marks? ).
They hardly have a good role model when they see the 6 o' clock news, who needs video nasties, the State Sponsored death and destruction is out there for all to see.
As you sow, so shall ye reap.

Simon, Leeds, U.K.

"Is such tripe likely to expand the cultural horizons of pupils who live in high crime areas? Do these poems venerate violence? It seems a fearful selection. The exam board seems to be running scared of the pupils" - Fiona Hamilton has most likely never taken time to consider the meaning of Duffy's and Armitage's work but is simply reading the words. Literature is something she cannot understand, she has read Duffy's Education For Leisure and simply believes it is a urging readers to kill. Unfortunately anybody (student/parent/teachers) who has taken time to infer the deeper complex meaning beneath the callous facade will understand that Duffy is condenming society's flaws.

Unlike journalism, literature of old and new is never flat but has as many dimensions as the reader choses to acknowledge.

sam bradshaw, london,

The set poems written by the incomprehensibly over-rated Carol Ann Duffy and Simon Armitage (in the AQA English anthology) espouse mindless violence. They are accompanied by illustations such as a photograph of a large, glittering knife.

Is such tripe likely to expand the cultural horizons of pupils who live in high crime areas? Do these poems venerate violence? It seems a fearful selection. The exam board seems to be running scared of the pupils.

Better give teenagers poems about smashing peoples' heads in or we may not be able to keep their interest.

It should therefore come as no surprise that pupils happily produce work that contains "sickening violence".

Jane Palmer, Reading, Berks

I am reliably informed by my daughter that her topic was not her 'choice'. The title 'The Assasin" was actually given to them by the teacher - no wonder there were many essays of a violent gendre this year, so she did her best !
We've always got James Bond for inspiration !
Let me say, I am anti-violence, and I'm very disturbed by the rise in youth crime; but it's easy to jump on the band wagon and blame the youth themselves. What about giving them non-violent essay titles to write about !!

Anna, Surrey,

On the news, you're forever hearing about the increase of gangs, murders & terrorist attacks. Films are adding more and more gore and twisted plots. Even on the seemingly innocent cartoons, you see characters yelling insults, and battling it out with each other in order to win respect from peers and such.
And of course, computer games, containing growing amounts of graphic, gore scenes, those similar to a horror movie. Except it’s worse – YOU get to experience first hand what it’s like to go around in a gang, stealing and killing.
From a very early age, children are plonked in front of the TV, and exposed to this revulsion. When it comes to creative writing, it’s almost ‘natural’ for them to write disturbing content, as they were brought up it.
But mainly expressing pent up emotions caused by social issues, domestic violence, exam stress and personal dissatisfaction. It gives a release, as the child can do and say what it wants, without having to face the consequences for real

Hannah Parcell, Shrewsbury, Shropshire

There is no doubt that many art forms - movies, music, magazines - which fill the heads of many British youngsters do contain very high levels of violence, and this input is probably reflected in the material they themselves write. However, though it is worth keeping an educational eye on such trends, I personally wouldn't worry too much that this will be translated into acceptable behaviour in the real world. We do have pockets of violent behaviour in the UK, but I would suggest that kind of minority has always been with us. Most children can tell right from wrong and the stuff that fills their heads, Tarantino movies or Rap music is, I believe, usually filtered by most youngsters into what is acceptable and what is not. I grew up in an era when it was common to read that cap guns, with which we played cowboys, were a source of concern because of the appalling signals they sent out. to gullible young minds. I don't recall reading of any of my friends later shooting up a bar!

Brian Fargher, Birmingham, United Kingdom

Long ago, when I was a teacher in a primary school, I had a boy who managed to, whatever the topic on offer, turn it into a "video nasty". I suspected he was watching inappropriate material at home. I had a conference with his mother about his work. When I pointed this obsession out to her, she treated it as a joke and saw nothing wrong with it. And there, I left it. But I felt that her lack of concern was wrong. Later, as he was bright, he went to the local independant school.

In most cases when a child's writing was of concern, or showed an awareness of the unfairness of a situation, I did flag it up to the parent concerned. What the parent did about it was up to them. Often, I felt, they did nothing or not very much.

Carlyle Braden, Croydon, U.K.